Quality of life of X-linked agammaglobulinemia patients in the United Kingdom

Due to limitations in current therapies (immunoglobulin replacement therapy), complications in X-linked agammaglobulinemia (XLA) such as bronchiectasis may continue to occur, with subsequent significant impacts on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). There were no significant differences in PedsQL 4.0 total scores against UK healthy norms (self 80.98, P = 0.277; parent 79.76, P = 0.465). There were no significant differences in the SF36v2 physical component score (PCS) against UK healthy norms (49.10, P = 0.712). However, XLA patients with bronchiectasis had significantly worse PCS than patients without (47.88 versus 55.14, P < 0.001) and significantly worse PCS than UK healthy norms (P = 0.004). In the absence of bronchiectasis, HRQoL is comparable to UK healthy norms. However, XLA patients with bronchiectasis have significantly worse HRQoL than patients without bronchiectasis and UK healthy norms. These data demonstrate that further work into novel therapies are needed to prevent bronchiectasis to enable XLA patients to have a normal quality of life.